Writing instruments, such as pens, pencils and the like have an elongated tubular shape. The tubular shape can have anyone of a variety of cross-sectional configurations, including circular, hexagonal, triangular or the like. Anyone who has ever visited a stationery store, walked down the school supply aisle of a mass merchandiser, or spent time in an office supply store recognizes that writing instruments such as pens and pencils, in a wide variety of shapes and sizes exist, and also recognizes that most writing instruments are primarily linear in their configuration.
Back in the mid-1980s, the Applicant happened upon an idea to make writing instruments, such as pencils into decorative shapes. These decorative shapes were achieved by starting with a standard, linear pen or pencil that was made from a thermo-formable material. In this regard, standard pencils were not useable, since most pencils have a the wood casing that is not bendable or shapeable under the influence of heat. The Applicant heated one end of the generally linear writing instrument to a point wherein the material from which the body of the instrument was made became “soft” enough to be bendable, and thereby formable into a decorative shape.
The Applicant found that an interior mold-type device could be used as a template around which to bend the heated and softened writing instrument to form the writing instrument into a desired shape that was consistent from pencil to pencil. Among the first shapes that the Applicant made were pencils having an eraser end portion that was formed into a shape that resembled a heart. The finished pencil had a heart-shaped top portion, and a generally linearly bottom portion, that was capable of being sharpened and used as a conventional writing instrument.
Although the Applicant first employed his design with pencils, he later found that stick-type pens could also be employed to create pen-type writing instruments having decorative shapes. In this regard, the Applicant found, through experimentation, that the best results were achieved by employing elongated stick-type pens that had a length longer than a standard stick pen, so that the final product would comprise a pen having a normal length linear portion to which was added the decorative head portion.
In the ensuing years, the Applicant has employed a wide variety of molds to create a wide variety of shapes, including shapes as diverse as hockey sticks, alligators, T-shirts, numerals, sharks, pets and inanimate objects. A sampling of the variety of shapes that the Applicant has employed in his decorative writing instruments can be viewed at www.bentcil.com.
One interesting use to which the Applicant's writing instruments have been placed is in connection with fund-raising efforts. In this regard, the Applicant's customers have included groups that have requested the Applicant to construct a decorative pen having a shape that bears some relation to the activity, mascot or other characteristic of the group. For example, a hockey team might order a pen having a top portion that resembled a blade of a hockey stick. Similarly, an association of attorneys might order a batch of pens having a shark-shaped top portion. The group would then order a quantity of pens that were sold by the members of the group to help raise funds for the group, and to promote the groups' activities.
It occurred to the Applicant that another way to exploit the value of the decorative pencils, both as a fund raising tool and as an educational experience, is to create a device that could be used by the hobbyist or child-type consumer to produce his or her own decorative pencils which could then be resold for fund-raising purposes, or enjoyed by the maker. For children, this would have the benefit of providing the children with some manufacturing experience.
Producing such a device created a substantial challenge, as a consumer-useable device faces engineering constraints that are not found in devices that are used in industrial settings. In particular, the industrial devices used by the Applicant in his factory would not be suitable for use by consumers, both because the tooling used in industrial devices is much too expensive to be priceable at an attractive price point for consumers, and also because the industrial devices are designed for use by trained technicians, and, hence, might not be suitable for use by untrained consumers, and especially children.
Therefore, one object of the present invention is to create a consumer-useable device, of the type that might be used by a casual hobbyist, or elementary-school-aged child, to enable the child to convert generally linear writing instrument blanks into finished writing instruments having a decorative shaped portion.